Complaint / Review
Canine Partners for Life
Uses Inhuman and Cruel Training Practices, Places Temperamentally Unsuitable Dogs and Gives Gross Misinformation to Clients

I have been involved with Canine Partners for Life for over 4 years. I have personally witnessed abusive training practices as well as severe misinformation being presented by the trainers during Team Training. I witnessed the Executive Director, Darlene Sullivan, use her personal service dog to demonstrate "how to give a proper correction" —she grabbed her dog's face and yelled at her —the dog was shaking with her tail tucked —she had done nothing wrong and would stand and shake when called for any subsequent demonstrations.

I witnessed the Executive Director lift a dog off the ground by her prong collar (all 4 paws) for eating
a muffin off of a chair. Clients were advised to harshly correct a growling dog by yanking on the prong collar and/or grabbing the dog's face and yelling. Trainers told a couple of recipients using power chairs to run over their dogs to get their dogs to obey. Trainers told students to yank the prong collar if their dog would not retrieve —making training sessions stressful and causing several dogs to shut down.

Several dogs who barked and growled at other dogs/people/sounds (sound sensitivity/reactivity) were allowed to graduate. One dog who pooped on the train trip into Philadelphia (and subsequently had to wear a Thunder Shirt to calm him because he was so anxious) still was allowed to graduate —even though the dog was exhibiting severe stress signals when working in public. I saw another recipient's dog wearing a Thunder Shirt as well. A dog that has to wear a Thunder Shirt to function in public is not suited to be a service dog —the dog is stressed and anxious and it is cruel to make the dog work.

In a past graduating class, a dog developed seizures during Team Training and the team was still allowed to graduate and go home without knowing if medicine was effective or not.

Canine Partners for Life is not an organization I can in good conscience recommend to anyone. They use outdated and inhumane training methods and allow unsuitable dogs to graduate from their
program, which does not paint a good picture for other service dog teams and organizations.